​I guess when a favorite piece of evidence for ancient astronauts is debunked as little more than a hoax, you have two choices: You can accept the verdict of reason, or you can fight it. Ancient Aliens has made the unusual choice to try to rehabilitate the fake Dropa Stones, a hoax that first appeared in a German vegetarian magazine in July 1962 before being popularized by books like Peter Kolosimo’s Not of This World. The Dropa Stone hoax became popular enough that Sputnik magazine used a picture of one such stone as part of the cover illustration for an article on Uzbekistan “alien” cave art that Erich von Däniken later mistook for the art itself. The stones, it goes without saying, have never been shown to exist outside of the imagination of ufologists. Ancient Aliens takes the lack of evidence as proof of a massive conspiracy to suppress the truth.

​Segment 1As might be expected from an episode on “The Alien Disks,” the show chooses to open in 1938, with the fictitious discovery of hundreds of the Dropa Stones alongside the bodies of Grey space aliens in a remote part of China. The narrator concedes that the first and only original report of the “discovery” was a “German magazine,” though its vegetarian and fringe nature is omitted. From this, the talking heads spin a wild tale of the translation of the stones’ tiny hieroglyphs and their story of how aliens crashed in China and could not return home. But all of this is a later invention, wrapped up in a conspiracy theory that the Chinese government seized the disks and denied their existence. “That means that at some point these disks were put away by museums, by archaeologists, who knows?” Giorgio Tsoukalos said. He assumes the disks exist and therefore declares that “archaeologists are afraid to investigate something just because the inscription on them reads that there was an alien visitation.”

The show then cuts immediately to a fake story about a village of dwarves. I covered this years ago, where I discovered that ancient astronaut theorists misrepresented and lied about the news accounts of “dwarf” Chinese that they assumed were Grey hybrids. The actual news article, which they distorted wildly, reported that a cohort of Chinese villagers contracted a waterborne disease as children and experienced stunted growth.

After accepting a hoax and a lie as truth, the show then decides that circles are evidence of aliens. Since the show has already declared triangles and the number three to be signs of aliens, they are beginning to run a bit low on geometric shapes. For those of you keeping track, the show already did an episode on circles as signs of aliens: Season Ten’s “Circles from the Sky,” though that one focused on crop circles.

​Segment 2The second segment continues the theme that circular objects have a connection to aliens. They start with the Phaistos Disc, an artifact found in a Minoan palace but whose language has not yet been identified. William Henry suggests that it is a computer disk meant to be read by a machine from space. It’s probably either Minoan or Anatolian, but Giorgio Tsoukalos claims, wrongly, that Minoan mythology begins with sky gods bringing civilization to Crete—an impossibility since nothing of Minoan religious literature or mythology survives except in fragments reflected in later Greek myth. For an “expert,” Tsoukalos doesn’t seem to know about his subject matter at all.

Following this, Tsoukalos goes gaga over a tablet showing the sun-god Shamash in a scene featuring the god, shown larger in hieratic scale (Tsoukalos mistakes him for a giant) sitting before a disc that in Babylonian faith stood for the god. You can see it yourself here, but I just don’t see an alien giving the little humans what Henry calls a “god button” for contacting space aliens. Conventional scholarship says that it represents a Babylonian king (far left) dressed as Shamash and receiving the symbols of the sun-god (far right), whom he represented on Earth.

​Segment 3The third segment deals with the Inca and a mirrored disc representing the sun that, according to later accounts of Inca myths, the emperor Pachacuti used as a totem of divine favor. Golden disks representing the sun god Inti were a symbol of the Incan royal family, so the idea that there was a divine prototype for them is a fairly obvious myth to explain and justify it. Tsoukalos says that worldwide, cultures used circles in their worship, so both Tsoukalos and David Childress claim that circles are technological devices, and David Wilcock adds that they functioned like smartphones. The talking heads all agree that using a golden disc can open an interdimensional portal in solid rock, thus answering a question I raised many years ago: If they are so confident that symbolic false doors are portals to another dimension, why don’t they run headfirst into them at top speed? Now we have the answer—they need a golden disc that they conveniently aren’t able to access! They add that the most famous of all the Inca sun discs, the massive and sacred royal image of Inti in the Coricancha temple in Cuzco, was really a kind of Skype or Facetime for aliens, on the basis of claims that the Inca thought they could communicate with the god through it. This is about like claiming that a crucifix is a radio receiver because Catholics kneel before it when they pray.

​Segment 4The fourth segment continues the Incan theme, sending David Childress to visit tunnels beneath Cuzco and Sachsayhuaman on the trail of the golden disc of Inti. But Scottish wannabe fringe history star Ashley Cowie tells a lie about the fate of the disc. In explaining three alleged fates, he says that many believe that that the disc was taken to the golden city of Paititi, which cannot possibly be a genuine Conquest era story since the Paititi myth is a fraud made up out of a laughably disappointing Jesuit manuscript, which I took the liberty of translating just to show how little truth here is to the myth. There is no golden city, or even much of a city. Anyway, the show suggests that the disc was returned to an interdimensional city under Titicaca, another modern distortion of an older story and sightings of the ruins of a temple build when the lake level was lower that I don’t really have time to get into because the show has already decided that it has had enough of the Inca and moves on into the silly idea that Guy Ballard was telling the truth about being taken underground to a mysterious Venusian city under Mount Shasta in the 1930s. I’ve discussed the Mount Shasta myths before, but there is no reason to suspect that there is a Venusian or Atlantean city under the mountain. Ballard’s version was an amplification and modernization of claims about Atlanteans first aired in Dweller on Two Planets half a century earlier. The story wasn’t true then, and it wasn’t true in the 1930s, or today

​Segment 6The sixth segment repeats material about crop circles from earlier episodes because, like some demented Sesame Street, the Muppet-like talking heads uniformly tell us that this week’s subject is circles. “It’s appalling that in many cases governments have confiscated these materials, these artifacts, and won’t let anybody know,” George Noory says. The other heads tell us that the discs, many of which are fictitious, will connect us to space aliens and, as George Noory said, “might be the extraterrestrials themselves.” And I thought that was cubes like the Gurlt Cube, that so-called alien spying device! No matter, we have learned in this miserable hour that circles are spooky, archaeologists are afraid of them, and governments will stop at nothing to hide circles from us, except when they let Hausdorff take pictures of them, or when (like the Spanish) they are actively pursuing discs for their treasury, or (as in the Babylonian Shamash tablet) they display the “secret” in the British Museum for all to see.

Allan, the topic of the show was Alien "Disks", not Alien... well, we know what you were looking for.

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Clete

9/9/2017 01:18:25 pm

Please stop projecting your own feeling onto someone else.

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An Over-Educated Grunt

9/9/2017 01:48:58 pm

No, your MOM's a negative, angry, cynical, and tedious writer!

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Only Me

9/9/2017 11:43:29 am

“It’s appalling that in many cases governments have confiscated these materials, these artifacts, and won’t let anybody know,” George Noory says.

Then how can this claim be made? Nobody outside the government knows, right? Methinks someone is injecting the warehouse scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark into the conversation.

>>>The other heads tell us that the discs, many of which are fictitious, will connect us to space aliens...<<<
>>>both Tsoukalos and David Childress claim that circles are technological devices, and David Wilcock adds that they functioned like smartphones<<<

I thought that was the purpose of the crystal skulls!

It never ceases to amaze me how this show contradicts itself in almost every episode, but every claim made is presented as true.

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Shane Sullivan

9/9/2017 01:22:51 pm

I'm disappointed they didn't touch on one of my favorite pretend alien artifacts, the genetic disk:

https://archyfantasies.com/2013/12/12/the-genetic-disk/

I would love to have seen them struggle to tastefully pan around the racier bits.

Hi folks. I'm the afore mentioned lying wannnbe fringe star! Contrary to this brilliant blog review, check out my blog, it's full of new discoveries and some pretty cool history projects. I don't however write about aliens like this blogger. I did an interview on Ancient Aliens recently about ancient discs, but because an architect designs a church he is not by default a Christian. I also did a documentary with an Indian television company last month and I am not a Hindu now. So my appearance on AA speaks nothing of my personal beliefs.

My brand - 'The People's History' is dryer and less extreme than this one, and also unlike this blog, it is not about me. My UK television show produces weekly documentary archives featuring the social and living history of Scotland. It is currently the second most viewed network series in the nation and now filming Season 5. How on earth did 'wanna be fringe' achieve that? Find out on: www.ashleycowie.com.

Now, to the editor of this blog...your friends won't tell you this but you need to hear it. If you want to be taken seriously by the masses you must address all the typos, grammar fails and the blog colour scheme simply has to go. Or your readers eventually will.

Please take this constructively and positively as I have not a single element in my body which enjoys being critical. That takes a certain type of person, and I'm made up of different stuff altogether. Currently this blog is selfishly clanked together with no respect to the reader. It is author focused and terribly dated.

Even a couple of grand on half-decent author photographs and some paid design and branding work, could fix this and increase the readership significantly. It currently breaks all media rules and the blogger fails to imagine his readers sitting in darkened green rooms with weirdly composed off-camera author shots and thoughtless layouts going on with shitty carousels to add movement. Really? It's just all too fringe and 90's for me.

I'm just more mainstream and less alieny maybe. All that said, we find the green dot above the letter i in the bloggers name to be a thing of wonder. Keep that for old times sake please. It's just brilliant. Iconic of the alien obsessed world this blogger lives in. In Glasgow slang they would say 'pure dead class man' - to that green dot. Long may it live.

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Only Me

9/9/2017 05:14:24 pm

"If you want to be taken seriously by the masses you must address all the typos, grammar fails and the blog colour scheme simply has to go. Or your readers eventually will."

And yet, after seven years, this blog will be on the first page of results for searches on almost any fringe topic. If your brand is so hot, why are you plugging your own blog twice? I'm sure anyone remotely interested in you or your brand can find you, what with the rampant success you're experiencing.

"Currently this blog is selfishly clanked together with no respect to the reader. It is author focused and terribly dated."

This blog is actually an extension of Jason's hobby. With the limits of the Weebly format, I'd say it's doing just fine.

"All that said, we find the green dot above the letter i in the bloggers name to be a thing of wonder."

A very good point. I was on a train and cared little for editing a quickly written blog message.I just expect better editing from a blog presenting critical reviews and views.

Americanegro

9/10/2017 06:03:34 pm

On August 30 you wrote: "It fits between ones fingers"

On August 19 you wrote: "Peña de Juaica - Penis of Juaica"

On August 19 you wrote: "about an hours drive north"

On August 19 you wrote: "All of the curious lightening phenomena"

On August 19 you wrote: "inhabited these territories for around 16’000 years."

I decided to let you slide on "pre-Colombian" because that might actually be a thing. I think it's not.

Also, you have a rather idiosyncratic view of what "phallic" means. I recognize that you may not actually be seeing penises everywhere and that may indeed be a Colombia-specific term, but a pyramidal landform is in no way "phallic".

Ah, Ashley, I am honored that you have such little critical compulsion that you nevertheless felt compelled to react to a sentence of my article-length review with six paragraphs attacking me while defending yourself as a brand rather than as a purveyor of truth. I think you will find that the majority of the problems I and my fellow skeptics have with you is that you seem to have selected a brand and then slotted your work into it rather than tried to develop an actual body of work worthy of a brand.

I know very well that you have a Scottish history series, but also that you have attempted to expand your brand—and here you use your comments to hijack my review for your own self-promotion—so you can have a wider global audience, particularly in the Holy Grail of television, America. And Scottish history won’t do that. You are too modest: You left out your Syfy channel work and Templar/Sinclair conspiracy work. I would have considered you too marginal a figure for comment here except that you said something massively wrong about Paititi, and I happen to be the English translator of the original Jesuit manuscript on which the legend is based. The difference between us, Ashley, is that I did the research you pretend to do on television.

Now as to your comments on my blog, I am astonished at your criticism since your own website uses nearly the same layout as my own, except that it has many more pictures of you in low and dramatic lighting. I saw your face 12 times on your homepage—along with your own custom monogram, which weirdly seems to read ALO instead of “AC.” Forgive me if I decline to take advice from you on aesthetics. All of the tabs on your homepage are about you, whereas my website’s Library provides more than 1 million words of free content, much of it exclusive original translation, that has nothing to do with me or any product. Get back to me when you have some real content to share that doesn’t involve you making money.

Unlike you, my goal isn’t to sell myself or to push product. I am here to provide facts, evidence, and truth, or as close to it as I can come. To that end, I do all of this myself, for free. Aside from the money it takes to keep the site up and running, everything here is done by me, alone, without any help. It is not my job, and I make no money from it. The money my books bring in goes to the upkeep of the site.

You see, Ashley, you chose to sell your soul to unscrupulous liars and frauds for “exposure” and corporate cash. No amount of complaint that you are repulsed by the color green or hate the lamp of knowledge in my wordmark will change that.

You are astonished! So you call me a liar and expect a kiss in return? I stated 'some' people believe the disk was taken to...' They do. This is not a lie. I personally don't believe this, but it's a commonly held belief in Peru.

And my days of conspiracies and the like ended a long long time ago - as you can see on my blog. My writing adopts a high sceptical approach to fringe subjects. Replacing the ridiculous with reason. And becuse a younger me entertained such notions I have a real grasp on the process of self delusion a day how pseudo history works.

So far this year I've bust Creation Scientists in Texas. Mummy hoaxers in Peru and I've debunked a UFO belief system associated with a mountain in Colombia.

Why tf did I do Ancient Aliens interview? Because I'm a presenter and it was great fun and paid a whack of bills. And nobody really takes it as seriously as you. It's part of our pop culture and I don't fear it.

In all honesty, Ego aside, your blog is actually really rich in content and I wish the sceptic community was stronger. My last message was threaded with similar loose comments to your own review. I was proding you for a reaction having been called a liar.

I have a new book coming soon which annihilates the entire St Clair Templar conspiracy shit and breaks down how I, and so many others fall into such traps. And your work features in there in my personal process of learning and chipping of the rough edges.

Let's just say I'm born again for now. And having done an AA interview I now know the inner mechanics of that entire production and have a unique insight as to how it all works.

And so far as selling my soul, I'm a little disappointed you believe in such nonsense. I figured a leading light in a sceptical community would reject such dated spiritual nonsence. I hold no beliefs in souls, after lives an the like. Hence, I will do whatever it takes for my family to live, and if that means the odd AA interview then I'll be doing just that.

I have no chance of convincing an extremest such as yourself, but the human side of me felt it was right to make a less egotistical/reactionary message and a more honest post here.

I'll tootle along now...

Joe Scales

9/11/2017 10:49:38 am

"Why tf did I do Ancient Aliens interview? Because I'm a presenter and it was great fun and paid a whack of bills. And nobody really takes it as seriously as you. It's part of our pop culture and I don't fear it. "

And wasn't I just saying that the Fringe doesn't so much crave credibility as they do cash. Case in point.

Americanegro

9/11/2017 11:48:35 am

I actually read your Penis article, as you know, and I wouldn't call it a "debunking". Your latest post above is riddled with typos. Are you still on that train?

Holy crap, Ashley. You seriously thought I was being literal in saying you sold your soul? Perhaps I should demand the receipt? It's a conventional expression, not a statement of faith.

I didn't call you a liar; I said you told a lie. I cannot attribute intention to that, and I am sure you aren't aware of the origins of the story. In your segment on Ancient Aliens, you don't say that "some" believe in the disc-to-Paititi story but that "legends" talk of it. That is problematic because I was able to find many references to "legends" secondhand in late 20th and 21st century books, but I found no documentation of the story before then. It would seem to be a modern invention, but I would be happy to hear otherwise if you know if a primary source from the Conquest period or the Colonial era.

I am happy to hear that you are no long in thrall to the fringe, but I am disappointed to learn that you consider money to be sufficient to sell out your newfound principles. I am sorry to hear that Scottish TV stardom pays so poorly that "Ancient Aliens" is your only recourse to pay for food. However do you afford the "couple of grand" your web design costs? I am also surprised to hear you describe the far-off world of 2011 as the time when you were young and stupid. You were 38 at the time.

Make no mistake: appearing on "Ancient Aliens" isn't just "fun." You may say no one takes it seriously, but that is a lie. It is taken very seriously by a small but important segment of the population. Beyond that, to appear on the show is to endorse its use of racist, Neo-Nazi, creationist, and anti-Semitic source material, and to participate in what Michael Barkun calls the "culture of conspiracy" that weds ancient astronaut beliefs to rightwing extremism. "Ancient Aliens" presents itself as happy, stupid television, but it is the smiling face of very dark beliefs that have widespread currency. I am sure there are more honest ways to make money.

I am honored that you find my blog interesting and credit it with helping you understand the faults of the Templar-Sinclair conspiracies. Take this advice: Consider not just the facts but also the implications of the ideas. Conspiracy theories are corroding our culture, and treating them as a joke only gives them strength.

David Bradbury

9/11/2017 03:44:39 pm

STV just reran an episode of "The People's History Show" and I can see that the main presenters would not be highly paid.
The format was four short unrelated segments filmed in different parts of Scotland, each with a local person talking about the particular topic (with a greater or lesser degree of prompting from a member of the show's team). In this particular episode, the sole function of main presenters Sarah Mack and Ashley was to stand in front of a nice green steam locomotive and introduce each segment.

OK... Since Ashley won't share sources with us, I have gone to the trouble of tracking it all back to the original sources. Tomorrow I will present my findings.

David Bradbury

9/9/2017 06:38:32 pm

"My UK television show produces weekly documentary archives featuring the social and living history of Scotland. It is currently the second most viewed network series in the nation and now filming Season 5. How on earth did 'wanna be fringe' achieve that?"
Wasn't "The People's History Show" already well established on STV's urban stations over a couple of seasons before you came on board, Ashley? And for the benefit of American viewers, it's worth clarifying that "the nation" here is Scotland, not the United Kingdom- the TV series in question is about Scottish history, and is not broadcast in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

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Americanegro

9/9/2017 07:16:24 pm

I wondered and suspected what "the nation" meant. But David, I think you're being a bit harsh. After all, the man WALKED THOUSANDS OF MILES IN TEN YEARS. Admittedly, like a child or a cow, but still it's on his website so it has to count for something.

Don't take Jason seriously. He's a self published blogger and author who loves to write non truths so that people like you notice him. He's a grocery clerk in his real job.

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Americanegro

9/11/2017 01:42:13 pm

“He's a grocery clerk in his real job.”

Is that meant as an insult？ It's like you don't understand how cool it would be if that were true.

An Over-Educated Grunt

9/11/2017 03:57:48 pm

Don't take Hank seriously. He sells propane and propane accessories, and knows very little outside that field, I tell you what. He's even a Cowboys fan.

BigNick

9/12/2017 12:21:19 am

Wematanye

DPBROKAW

9/12/2017 10:35:56 pm

Hank: You want to make Jason out to be some sort of disgruntled loser who desires attention. The way I see it Jason is not doing this for attention. It's more like he's providing a public service, bringing to light the nonsense that the fringe and pseudo communities are pushing these days. It lets me know that I'm not the only one that sees a problem with this, and gives us a forum to talk about freely. Nobody gets blocked or kicked out for stating their opinions regardless if it agrees with Jason's. For you to come here and criticize him only shows that he's hit a nerve. And if people from fringe or pseudo beliefs are coming here and reading what we have to say means your reading it. That's great! Maybe you'll learn something. Maybe a small seed will get planted in your mind, and someday in the near future (hopefully) maybe that seed will take root and hopefully you'll start doing a little critical thinking of your own. good luck!

justanotherskeptic

9/9/2017 06:01:25 pm

Talking heads say the darndest things.

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An Over-Educated Grunt

9/10/2017 12:23:49 pm

Same as it ever was.

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Titus pullo

9/10/2017 04:30:36 pm

Ok psycho killer! 😀

Kal

9/12/2017 06:47:55 pm

I am assuming that the poster AC is a 'pulic figure' who has been on TV and has celebrity status, so that means he is fair game. In terms of libel, this is an opinion site and not bound by that. You cannot prove defamation.

This blog is not a news source. It is opinion and review, and protected speech, as it is not likely JC is a public figure, but is a private citizen.

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Joe Scales

9/12/2017 09:21:08 pm

Legal terms of art are not toys young man. Please find something else to play with. Nothing with sharp edges, of course.

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drunkenpeabody

9/16/2017 09:21:07 am

comments lol

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Sachin

9/16/2017 12:33:28 pm

Holy !..a good article but the fun was in the comments section..AC got torn a new one !

This episode was better than most, in a science fictional sort of way. No space lizards, biometric laser swords or anal probing fantasies.
These Ancient Aliens people must make quite a penny to afford to run around various exotic locations to spin fantasies about magic discs. The Dropa Stones had been debunked years ago. The magical Inca gold disk tossed into a lake seems more like the plot from an Indiana Jones comic or a Tomb Raider video game. Twelve seasons and still not one shred of proof that could be peer reviewed. I must confess, Ancient Aliens is still far more 'believable' than the bullshit secret space program fantasies told by Randy Cramer and Corey Good.

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.